Rain, rain, go away! But not before I test all my new rain gear. For the past couple of days I got my timing right and dodged the raindrops. But the steady ting-ting of raindrops on the skylight this morning signaled the moment of truth: would I ride to work in the rain?
Given all my new gear, I had to ride, and given this is California, the rain let up about 10 minutes into my ride. So I pulled over and tucked my nifty Dutch rain coat in my nifty bright yellow Dutch panniers.
Now the rain is over and the 10 day forecast shows nothing but sun. Yay! During the post-rain cleanup I decided to test the limits of my panniers. Just how waterproof are they anyway? Was I putting my laptop at risk riding in the rain? A garden hose, a stack of newspapers, a cooperative husband and an iPhone video later and I had my answer.
Have you ever done some crazy field testing of new equipment? Were the results accurate?
Note: Due to technical difficulties, the audio got dropped in the second half of the video. Do not adjust your player. What you missed were comments about the newspaper being completely dry even though I forgot to pull out the side flaps.
One woman. Many bicycles. 